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The Genetic Frontier

Some scientists say human engineering is possible, and imminent. But is it a good idea?

“No one really has the guts to say it.” James Watson, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, tells a panel of the world�s leading molecular biologists in 1998, before putting the lie to his own statement by bluntly asking the question: “If we can make better human beings by adding new genes, why shouldn�t we?”

It�s typical Watson rhetoric, reported by Gregory Stock in his book Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future. All the same, as our information technologies are increasingly turned upon the data in our own genes, humans who would be longer-lived and smarter—and perhaps saner—seem a feasible, attractive project to many people besides simply Dr. Watson. Conversely, for many other observers, the notion of a self-designed human species is disquieting. For some, it�s loathsome. Playing God, losing our humanity, employing Nazi-style eugenic programs, and instating genetic apartheid: foes of human genetic enhancement darkly recite a standard litany of such charges.

Amid the tizzy on both sides, how likely is it that we will manipulate human genes in any meaningful way within the next two decades? After all, serious practical obstacles exist. Critically, many traits we might desire to upgrade—for instance, intelligence and aging—appear not to correlate to single genes, but to be caused by large numbers of them and regulated by networks of other genes and poorly understood loops of RNA, transcription factors, and, surely, undiscovered mechanisms.

Hence, our scope for genetic engineering through single-gene fixes may be severely limited, as are our current abilities to fix single genes. Besides, talk of designer babies and “posthumans” reeks of both science fiction and self-improvement cultism.

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Reviews

DNA at 50

» The Genetic Frontier

Closer to God

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REDESIGNING HUMANS: OUR INEVITABLE GENETIC FUTURE
By Gregory Stock
Houghton Mifflin, 288 pages, $24
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THE GENOMIC REVOLUTION: UNVEILING THE UNITY OF LIFE
Edited by Michael Yudell and Robert DeSalle
Joseph Henry Press, 249 pages, $28
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OUR POSTHUMAN FUTURE: CONSEQUENCES OF THE BIOTECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION
By Francis Fukuyama
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 272 pages, $25
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TOMORROW NOW: ENVISIONING THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS
By Bruce Sterling
Random House, 224 pages, $25
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